Vaccines targeting adults, teens best chance to eliminate TB

Targets to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2050 are more likely to be met if new vaccines are developed for adults and adolescents rather than infants, according to a new research.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Stop TB Department at the World Health Organisation found that a vaccine given to adolescents and adults in low- and middle-income countries could have a much larger impact on the burden of TB worldwide and is more likely to be cost-effective, even if the vaccine has low efficacy and short duration or carries a high price.

TB mostly affects young adults and kills more than one million people every year, 95 per cent of whom are in low- and middle-income countries. The World Health Organisation has set the goal of eliminating TB by the year 2050.

The researchers used a mathematical model to estimate the impact and cost-effectiveness of a range of vaccination strategies in low- and middle-income countries.